April '10 Newsletter

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EHIPASSIKO

Wesak Day is approaching very soon. Wesak Day is a very special day which commemorates the three important events in the life of the Buddha- His Birth, Enlightenment and Passing Away. These events took place on the full moon day in the lunar month of Vesakha, which falls between April and May in our calendar. For the month of April and May, the newsletters will be illustrating the significance of Wesak by showing the story, the Life of the Buddha, in a graphical story.

This is the first part of the animated movie, The Legend of the Buddha.

Taken from the 1994 movie Little Buddha, starring Keanu Reeves

The story began more than 2500 years ago, in an small ancient kingdom of Sākya, located at the border of modern India and Nepal. The ruler of the kingdom, King Suddhodana and his queen, Maya did not have children after twenty years into their marriage. Until one night, according to legend,
Queen Maya dreamt of a white elephant, holding a white lotus flower in its trunk, appearing and went round her three times, entering her womb through her right side. Finally the elephant disappeared and the queen awoke, knowing she had been delivered an important message. She was getting pregnant.

Months after that incident, the Queen was very pregnant and was brought back to her hometown of Koliya because of the custom at that period. Along the journey from Kapilavattu, the Queen ordered the procession to stop for a rest at Lumbini Park. As she was resting under a sala tree, her birth began and a baby boy was born.
According to legend, the child began to walk seven steps forward and at each step a lotus flower appeared on the ground. Then, at the seventh stride, he stopped and with a noble voice shouted: "I am chief of the world, Eldest am I in the world, Foremost am I in the world. This is the last birth. There is now no more coming to be." After that, the Queen returned to Kapilavattu to share the joy with her husband with their newborn son, Siddhartha Gotama.
It all happened on the full moon day of the Vesakha month, Wesak Day.

The story will be continued in the next posting...